Line of Fire
2013
González singing about taking responsibility over Winterkorn's organ, the track AMC used to send Breaking Bad off.
★ 3.2
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
You Gotta Be
1994
Written out of a breakup and a Shakti Gawain self-help book, then re-released in Britain three times until it stuck.
★ 4.2
Who Will Save Your Soul
1995
Written at sixteen on a road trip, produced by Ben Keith, from a debut that took two years to break.
★ 4.5
Hero
1993
Written for Gloria Estefan until Mottola heard the demo; Carey thought it schmaltzy and took it to number one.
★ 4.5
It's My Life (No Doubt)
2003
Hollis and Friese-Greene wrote it for Talk Talk in 1984, and Nellee Hooper's production hands Stefani a stadium chorus.
★ 4.5
Drive (Incubus)
2000
Boyd called it a song about fear, and Scott Litt's production pulls the band down to acoustic guitar.
★ 5.0
Here I Go Again
1982
Jon Lord's Hammond organ on the 1982 original, a heartbreak song Coverdale wrote in Portugal, later a number one.
★ 5.1
Moment of TruthGang Starr
Moment of Truth
1998 · From Moment of Truth
Premier's beat under Guru facing a gun charge, cut at D&D Studios and delivered as a sermon on perseverance.
★ 5.3
Learnin' to Fly
1991 · From Into the Great Wide Open
Four chords, F, C, A minor, G, looping unchanged while Petty and Jeff Lynne make uplift sound effortless.
★ 5.5
Shut 'em Down
1991 · From Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black
Chuck D aimed it at corporations that profit off Black neighborhoods without reinvesting, and Pete Rock's remix outgrew the original.
★ 5.6
Drive (REM)R.E.M.
Drive (REM)
1992 · From Automatic for the People
John Paul Jones scored the strings, Scott Litt named Queen as the model, and the lyric hands kids the wheel.
★ 5.7
I Am a Rock
1966
Simon first cut it alone for a UK-only album, then Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye turned withdrawal electric.
★ 6.0
Independent Women
2000
Written for the Charlie's Angels soundtrack, eleven straight weeks at number one, and Michelle Williams's first single with the group.
★ 6.0
It's My Life (Talk Talk)
1984
A Tim Pope video with no lip-syncing, BBC wildlife footage, and Talk Talk's only American top forty.
★ 6.3
If You Want Me to Stay
1973 · From Fresh
Number twelve on the Hot 100, the band's last pop top twenty, and a bass line hip hop still raids.
★ 6.3
Tightrope
2010
Cut at Wondaland with Big Boi guesting, a horn-driven groove Monae wrote about staying level under praise and criticism.
★ 6.3
Simple Man
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Van Zant and Rossington wrote it in an hour, putting his grandmother's and Rossington's mother's advice into song.
★ 6.5
Wide Open Spaces
1998 · From Wide Open Spaces
Gibson wrote it on her first trip home from forestry school, and Lloyd Maines knew it belonged to his daughter.
★ 6.6
Ripple
1970 · From American Beauty
David Grisman's mandolin threading Hunter's London lyrics, a benediction the Dead tucked onto the B-side of "Truckin'".
★ 6.7
Irreplaceable
2006
Ne-Yo pitched it as country, written with Shania Twain in mind; Beyoncé turned it into ten weeks at number one.
★ 6.8